per Glen. She believed that her
brother-in-law had a motor-car, and thought it the height of
selfishness on his part that he did not send it to town to meet her.
But she had her pride, as she expressed it, and in consequence did not
arrive at The Garden till about four o'clock in the day, having given
the young Constables and the young Lennoxes time to have a very eager
chat together, whilst Mrs Constable and Lennox himself had a serious
conversation, in which they unanimously expressed the wish that Agnes
Delacour would take her departure as soon as possible.

Miss Delacour arrived on the scene in a very bad temper. She was met
by Lennox with his beautiful smile and courtly manner. He welcomed her
kindly, and gave her his arm to enter the great central hall. Miss
Delacour sniffed as she went in. She sniffed more audibly as her
small, closely set brown eyes encountered the fixed gaze of five little
girls, who, to judge from their manners, were all antagonistic to her.

'Come and speak to your aunt, my dears,' she said.--'George,' she
continued, 'I should be glad of some tea.'

'It isn't time for tea yet,' said Hollyhock, but I 'll amuse you.
Would you like to see a girl somersaulting up and down the hall? It's
a _grand_ place for that sort of exercise, and I can teach you if you
like. You _are_ a bit old, but I've seen older. You just have to let
yourself go--spread yourself, so to speak--put your hands on the floor
and then over you go, over and over. Oh, it's _grand_ sport; we often
do it.'

'Then you might do better,' said Miss Delacour, speaking in a very
stern voice. 'I haven't quite caught your name, child, but you have
evidently not learned respect for your elders.'

'My name is Hollyhock. I 'm a Scots lass frae the heather. Eh, but
there's no air like the air o' the heather! Did you ever get a bit of
it, all white? Yes, _there's_ luck for you.'

'Do you mean seriously to tell me, George,' said Miss Delacour, 'that
you have called that child Hollyhock--that impertinent, rude child,
Hollyhock?'

'Well, yes, he has, bless his heart!' said Hollyhock, going up to her
father and fondling his head. 'Isn't he a bit of a sort of a thing
that you 'd love? Eh, but he's a _grand_ man. He isn't afflicted with
bad looks, Aunt Agnes.'

'Send that child out of the room, George,' said Aunt Agnes.

'I refuse to stir,' was Hollyhock's response.

'George, is it true that you have insulted my dead siste